This paper develops tests for the null hypothesis of
cointegration in the nonlinear regression model with
I(1) variables. The test
statistics we use in this paper are Kwiatkowski,
Phillips, Schmidt, and Shin’s (1992; KPSS hereafter)
tests for the null of stationarity, though using
other kinds of tests is also possible. The tests are
shown to depend on the limiting distributions of the
estimators and parameters of the nonlinear model
when they use full-sample residuals from the
nonlinear least squares and nonlinear leads-and-lags
regressions. This feature makes it difficult to use
them in practice. As a remedy, this paper develops
tests using subsamples of the regression residuals.
For these tests, first, the nonlinear least squares
and nonlinear leads-and-lags regressions are run and
residuals are calculated. Second, the KPSS tests are
applied using subresiduals of size
b. As long as
b/T → 0 as
T → ∞, where T
is the sample size, the tests using the subresiduals
have limiting distributions that are not affected by
the limiting distributions of the full-sample
estimators and the parameters of the model. Third,
the Bonferroni procedure is used for a selected
number of the subresidual-based tests. Monte Carlo
simulation shows that the tests work reasonably well
in finite samples for polynomial and smooth
transition regression models when the block size is
chosen by the minimum volatility rule. In
particular, the subresidual-based tests using the
leads-and-lags regression residuals appear to be
promising for empirical work. An empirical example
studying the U.S. money demand equation illustrates
the use of the tests.